Gmail is at it again with yet another update to their features.
Google announced today that there is a new feature in the Labs section (again with the blasted labs!) of Gmail that will allow you to do all of your Google searches from directly inside your inbox. While this may not seem like such a big deal on the surface, it will also show you the search results in a small window to the side, and then you can take any of those results and place them in an email, or send them to a friend by chat. This will save an immense amount of time when you have to switch windows or tabs to do the same job by hand.
To add Google Search to your Gmail inbox, go to “Settings”, click on the “Labs” tab, and scroll down until you find “Google Search”. Once you find that, click “Enable” and then scroll to the bottom and click on the “Save Changes” button.
It seems that there is one Internet service provider (ISP) that is capable of getting it right.
On may 11th, customers of Cablevision’s Optimum Online service will have the ability to subscribe to a new high speed service that offers 101 Mbp/s for the shocking price of $99.95 a month. To make it even more of a slap in the face to some other ISPs out there, such as Time Warner, this will be an uncapped account, meaning that you can download as much as you like per month. Uploading will still be significantly slower than your downstream speeds, but it will still be difficult to argue with 15 Mbp/s when uploading your latest cat video to YouTube.
We have been very harsh on boradband Internet providers lately, especially with the story of municipalities are having to take over broadband access so their citizens can afford it, but this is a definite step in the right direction for ISPs. The price is still a bit steep compared to other countries for 100 Mbp/s service (okay, 101 Mbp/s), but when you compare it to the $140 a month some companies charge for 50 Mbp/s service, this is like a dream come true.
Unfortunately this service is pretty much limited to the New York City metropolitan area, but with one ISP taking this bold step, it will hopefully bolster customers of other providers to speak out more about how they will no longer stand for their exorbitant prices. Now… to find an apartment in Manhatten for StarterTech to move in to…
It’s getting to be that your office can go anywhere you go, and all in a device that fits in your hand.
Zoho, a creator of an online office suite, announced today that they are finishing their integration of their applications in to some of today’s most popular mobile phone devices. While iPhone and Windows Mobile users were already getting to use their favorite online office tools, now owners of some BlackBerry models, Android and Symbian S60 devices will get to do the same.
All you need to do is point your mobile browser to http://mobile.zoho.com/ and you’re go to go with using the following:
Zoho Mail
Zoho Calendar
Zoho Writer
Zoho Sheet
Zoho Show
Zoho Creator
Best of all, it is already available and it is currenty free of charge (no indication if that will change).
You can check out the embedded slide show for more details.
At long last, government is saying “enough!” to the Internet service providers in this country.
We here at StarterTech have long been proponents of the concept that something has to change in the United States in regard to broadband high speed Internet. Not only do we offer some of the lowest average speeds, we pay more for what littler we do receive that most anywhere else in the world. Instead of increasing our speeds, companies such as Time Warner are instead putting bandwidth caps on how much you can use per month before paying overage fees.
Luckily it appears that a new savior has appeared on the horizon, and certainly not one we ever expected to see.
Municipal governments.
Steven Hodson over at The Inquisitr had a story today how municipalities in North Carolina are beginning to fight back against the likes of Time Warner cable and their exorbitant prices for lackluster broadband connectivity. Tim Warner is charging $240 a month for 10 Mb/s service, recently increased to 15 Mb/s “because of the competitive environment,” bundled with their television service. The Wilson, NC example Mr. Hodson sites involves their new broadband service which starts at 10 Mb/s, up and down mind you, and go as high as 100 Mb/s. True, the 100 Mb/s will run you $300 a month, but considering some people are paying $240 for 15 Mb/s, I think that’s livable.
IndyWeek.com posted the following chart that makes it clear how Wilson is helping out their citizens:
Of course, the reaction of Time Warner was to attempt to get a bill passed saying municipalities couldn’t do this, but it was defeated.
This is what I personally have been waiting for. A war has to be started with these ISPs and their highway robbery prices they are charging us for Internet connectivity. The fact that anyone is even still offering DSL is amazing to me, but the prices they are charging for something like AT&T “Xtreme” DSL is just sickening.
The “shot heard round the world” has been fired my friends, and the time has come for the people to rise up, go to their windows, and yell “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!” (okay, okay, so this isn’t Network, but it fits!) The time has come for everyone to write their congressmen and let them know exactly how you feel You can locate your Representative here, and your Senators here.
In these difficult economic times, the time has come for the people to finally rise up and not even necessairly cry out for higher speeds, but definitely we need to fight for more reasonable bills. This is an issue that needs to be explored by Congress, and the sooner the better.
It would seem that The Weather Channel is none too fond of people who use BlackBerrys.
I am a self-admitted weather junkie. I have no clue why I obsess over it so much seeing as I work inside all of the time, but I still always want to know what the forecast is going to be. Back in the days before mobile phone applications and desktop alerts, I would have my TV tuned to The Weather Channel for a good amount of the day. Who cared if it was just the same forecast over and over, something might change, and I wanted to know!
As the channel became more and more “lets watch tornadoes tear up a town!”, I started using tools like their free 1-ClickWeather add-on for the Firefox browser and free desktop application to keep up with what was going on. When the Apple application store launched, one of the first things I downloaded to my iPod Touch was their free weather application (iTunes link) so I could keep up with it from a mobile device.
With the recent release of the BlackBerry App store, I was happy to see that The Weather Channel hadn’t let me down, and there was an application there for my BlackBerry 8830. Finally, I could check the weather any time, any where, and only for $29.99!
… say what?
Lets review, shall we?
Desktop application – $FREE
Firefox plugin – $FREE
iPhone/iPod Touch application – $FREE
BlackBerry application – $29.99
Is it just me, or does anyone else see a problem with this picture? Is there some mysterious BlackBerry application development tax that I am unaware of? I can not, for the life of me, fathom why they would not only be charging for this app, but charging such a ridiculously high price for it. Do they hate the BlackBerry? Do they think we are somehow made of money? I have no clue what their think could be, but I can promise you I won’t be downloading it.
If anyone know why this is, or even has a theory, please tell me!
In quite possibly one of the biggest “mea culpas’ in the history of Microsoft, Windows 7 will be able to run Windows XP software.
One of the biggest original complaints about Windows Vista was its inability to run a lot of business applications. This was a problem that persisted, and kept many small businesses from wanting to make the switch as it would mean all new software, some of it being expensive custom designed jobs. Now in an announcement on the Windows Blog, we come to find out this issue is getting addressed in Windows 7 in the hopes that small businesses will finally come back to the fold.
All you need to do is to install suitable applications directly in Windows XP Mode which is a virtual Windows XP environment running under Windows Virtual PC. The applications will be published to the Windows 7 desktop and then you can run them directly from Windows 7.
Now, virtual operating system environments habe known to be unstable, and seeing as how no one outside of Microsoft hasn’t seen this yet, no one knows if this will be the case with the Windows 7 environment. It is also only going to be a feature in Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate, meaning the higer priced versions of the program.
Sure, this isn’t a perfect solution, but it is sure a lot better than what we had under Vista, which was nothing. This new feature should appear in the upcoming release candidate due next week, so reports are sure to be coming in fast and furious on how well it actually works.
Gmail just keeps getting better and better, and now they are trying to make sure you never have to download anything to your computer ever again.
Back in December, Google added the ability to view PDFs to Gmail so that you didn’t have to download them any more. This was a major moment in the history of the service, and one this writer couldn’t have been more thrilled about. To continue the fight against downloading files, they have now added the ability to view PowerPoint presentations and TIFF image files to their arsenal of features.
Unlike so many other new features of late, you don’t have to do anything to activate these new features, they are automatically in your inbox. This is a very welcome new set of tools for someone such as myself who is constantly sent presentations and hi-res images to view. No longer will I have to download them just to discover I have no real use for them, and then go through the trouble of getting them off my system. Also, the less items you have to download, the lower the risk of you getting any viruses.
Keep it up Google, you will soon make all of us forget email ever existed before you!
Still have a stack of HD-DVDs laying around the house? Want to switch to Blu-ray finally? Finally there is a solution for you!
Although the HD-DVD/Blu-ray war ended over a year ago, there are still a lot of people who didn’t make the switch in formats when Blu-ray won due to the cost involved with purchasing their movies again. Well, Warner Brothers has come up with a solution to help you with finally making the change. Just go to Red2Blu.com and you can arrange to send in the sleeve artwork from your HD-DVDs (original copies only, limit of 1 copy of each film) to them, and for $4.95 you can get the Blu-ray copy of the same film. You pay $6.95 shipping for the entire order ($8.95 in Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico) and you should receive your movies in 4 to 5 weeks.
While this is currently limited to Warner Brothers movies only, it isn’t hard to imagine that the other studios will follow suit in the not to distant future. As someone who did go with HD-DVD, I am thrilled with the offer and will be shipping my product sleeves off immediately. I am a bit surprised they allow you to keep the physical movies, but at least I’ll still be able to enjoy them for a while longer.
As we previously reported, the specs for Bluetooh 3.0 (now called Bluetooth 3.0+HS) were due to be released on April 21st, and sure enough, this came to be true. The new high speed protoocls for Bluetooh will utilize the 802.11 spectrum (the same spectrum used for Wi-Fi) to allow for higher speed transfers of larger files. Some of the examples they gave were streaming movies directly from a camcorder to an HDTV, wirelessly trasnfering photos from a camera to a computer and syncing music to an MP3 player over the air.
While all of this sounds very exciting, no information was given on pricing will be like for these new items. The good news is that old Bluetooth equipment will still work with the new items thinks to backwards compatibility. Considering the speed with which technology changes these days, this is a feature that is going to become more and more essential for everything.
Items with the new standard are expected to appear on store shelves within 9 – 12 months, meaning we will not be seeing this in phones until sometimes in 2010.
You’ve found those old vhs or Digital 8 tapes you made years ago and wouldn’t it be fun to upload to YouTube to share with relatives and friends? But first you’ve got to get that video into your computer somehow. And how do they get those YouTube videos looking so good, anyway? Here’s a process I use on a weekly basis using free software tools.
I work with my church’s audio/visual committee and every week we record video of our church service and make the sermon available online. We record from an old Digital 8 camcorder to a digital video recorder and then make a DVD of the service which I take home with me to edit and upload. You may already have a DVR you can use to record your videotapes to DVD+/-Rs or use DVD+RWs that you can erase and reuse.
Please click “Read More” to continue reading the step-by-step instructions of how to do this. Also, please click on any of the images in this article for a larger view of them.
Gmail is at it again with yet another update to their features.
It seems that there is one Internet service provider (ISP) that is capable of getting it right.
It’s getting to be that your office can go anywhere you go, and all in a device that fits in your hand.
At long last, government is saying “enough!” to the Internet service providers in this country.
It would seem that 
In quite possibly one of the biggest “mea culpas’ in the history of Microsoft, Windows 7 will be able to run Windows XP software.
Still have a stack of HD-DVDs laying around the house? Want to switch to Blu-ray finally? Finally there is a solution for you!
The 
You’ve found those old vhs or Digital 8 tapes you made years ago and wouldn’t it be fun to upload to YouTube to share with relatives and friends? But first you’ve got to get that video into your computer somehow. And how do they get those YouTube videos looking so good, anyway? Here’s a process I use on a weekly basis using free software tools.
